Q&A

I've seen the effects of medication on my clients' nails.

I had a client about five years ago who was a nurse at a local hospital. I was doing silk wraps on her for a long time with no problem, but suddenly the wraps started peeling off in sheets. I tried fiberglass, but the same thing happened. We went through this for about two months. I asked her if she was taking any medication or had changed her diet or was using a different hand lotion or suntan oil. She said she wasn’t doing anything different. I asked her if she wasn’t doing anything different. I asked her if she was pregnant and she said no. Two to three weeks later she came in and told me she was about two-and-a-half months pregnant.

My mother had a problem with her nails about a year ago. She went to her nail technician for her scheduled appointment and found out she had a fungal infection under all 10 of her nails. She had had her nails done just two weeks before that and there was nothing wrong. Her nail technician told her to see her doctor right away. The doctor told her she had a thyroid problem and that that was the cause of the fungal infection. The doctor cut back all of her nails so she could put the medication right on the nail beds.

Instead of saying that the menstrual cycle or anything else has nothing to do with your nails, do some more research and talk to a gynecologist or a chemist or a doctor who can help answer the question. The nails and hair can tell you a lot about your body, providing clues to disorders such as heart disease and poor circulation. Your nail beds turn a different color when you are cold.

A.

It is difficult to determine the exact effect of menstruation on the nails because a fingernail takes six months and a toenail 12-18 months to grow completely. It is certainly logical to surmise that hormones have an effect on the nails; however, when a client is having her menstrual cycle, only the live portion of the nail is affected, ad that part of the nail is still being formed in the matrix, beneath the cuticle. I don’t believe that putting an artificial product on the nails during a client’s menstrual cycle affect show the product adheres to the nails.

Some conditions have been associated with the menstrual cycle. For example, Beau’s lines, which are transverse indentations on the surface of the nail plate, and transverse leukonychia, which are white lines going across the nail plate, have been associated with menstruation.

As for thyroid problems, they do not cause a fugal infection of the nails; however, they may cause the nail plate to separate form the nail bed. It is well known that when this separation occurs, fungus may get in resulting in a secondary fungal infection.